Charlie's

4

The alert caught me by surprise. I hadn't been expecting a transport so soon after the last one, but one was diverting my way and would be stopping by the next day. I cut short my time with Marie and scheduled a wake-up call with the sim.

The transport was a luxury liner. Luxury liners don't usually put in at little outposts like mine. They're required to do so if they pass through the system, like any other transport, but they get around that by planning their routes around me.

The lander disgorged a couple work crew who proceeded to fill my fabricator base supply. It hadn't run that low since the last visit; the recyclers were working and I was pretty thorough about processing my trash. A message on my comm said the latest media pack had been copied to the station.

Also emerging were three men in uniform. I didn't recognize the uniform, but I assumed it was used by the liner's company security staff. One of them had a pad; the other two were firmly escorting a somewhat scruffy-looking young woman in cuffs.

The man with the pad presented it to me. "Kepler, right? Local representative of the Survey Office? Authorize here, please."

"What am I authorizing?"

"Transfer of a detainee into your custody. This woman is a stowaway."

"Detainee? I can't take detainees! This is a research station! You can't dump her here!"

"Imperial shipping regulations say I can, in fact, debark this detainee here. Said same regulations say this station, as a recognized shipping lane stop, is obliged to hold the detainee until such time as a transport with adequate detention facilities can take custody of her."

"What, you don't have detention cells on your ship? Why dump her on me?"

"Because we're entitled to. Authorize here, Mr. Kepler."

"But...I'm not set up for prisoners, or even visitors! I don't have cells or anything..."

The man looked around at the rocky landscape. "Barren desert world, right? Looks pretty detention-y to me."

"I'm not taking her!"

"Look, Mr. Kepler...I see an intact outpost hab, you're alive so I know life support's working, and we just topped off your fab base so you're adequately supplied. I have reason to believe she will survive if I leave her here, so I can just do that and file a report about how the local Survey Office rep was less than compliant with regulations." He extended the pad to me once more. "Or you can authorize here."

I authorized.

They removed her cuffs, uncoupled the line to the base tank and got back on board. My detainee and I watched the lander lift off and disappear into the sky. So far we hadn't as much as looked at each other.

"Welcome to Tantalus 3," I murmured. "Enjoy your stay."

"Fuck you."

"Couldn't have said it better myself."